Kensington, Kansas is a very patriotic town. A huge flag flies at the only convenience store on Highway 36. The yearly veterans day parade is the Saturday before November 11. Downtown in the American Legion was a very busy group of ladies. One of the ladies, Melanie Elliott, explained that what started as sending care packages to her son in the military snowballed into troop support. {{more}}
The ladies began at nine in the morning and would not be finished until late afternoon. There was much prep work and planning. In a mixing bowl was two regular cake mixes and in another bowl was one angel food cake mix. The ladies scoop each into a small packet, seal the packet and place 20 in a box. Their goal was 2,000 packets.
All the cake mixes were donated. They also made wooden Christmas ornaments to go in the packages. Postage was the greatest challenge and they asked the public for monetary contributions.
Melanie’s friend in Oklahoma had founded The HUGS Project in May 2004. Melanie delivers the boxes to a town near Oklahoma City and then they are delivered to HUGS. They are mailed on November 7th.
What does the soldier do with the mix? The CupCake directions read: Empty mix into micro safe mug, add 2 tablespoons of water, then stir. Microwave for 1 minute and enjoy. Merry Christmas from the HUGS Project.